You might be thinking that you’ve done everything to protect your business from cyberthreats. You have the most advanced security solutions to defend against external threats, but are you equally protected against internal threats?

Knowingly or unknowingly, your employees, your vendors, your partners and even you could pose a threat to your business.

Cyberattacks are malicious attempts by hackers to damage, disrupt, or steal data from a system, network, or device. These incidents can lead to massive data breaches, financial loss, and even identity theft. For businesses, the disruption to critical operations is often the most damaging outcome, with ransomware being the most notorious threat.

Recently, reports have surfaced that Hunters International has leaked an enormous 386 gigabytes of sensitive data from the US Marshal Service. As of now, we don't have detailed information on how this breach occurred or the legitimacy of the data. To shed some light on the situation, we'll investigate the dark web—a crucial aspect of our threat intelligence efforts.

A recent cyberattack on Seattle-Tacoma International Airport has disrupted operations, causing significant flight delays and cancellations.

This incident serves as a stark reminder of the vulnerability of critical infrastructure to cyber threats.

The attack, which began on August 24, 2024, has compromised internet services, phone lines, baggage handling, and flight information systems.

This week, there have been several notable cyberattacks, and while I usually focus on just one major incident, I’m changing things up. Moving forward, I’ll cover multiple incidents each week, including both well-known and lesser-reported attacks—some of which we see happening on the dark web.

Today, we're diving into a topic that's taken the internet by storm—something that has almost every American worried—the massive data breach that has potentially exposed the Social Security numbers of nearly every U.S. citizen. This could be one of the biggest breaches in internet history!
So, What Happened?
This breach involves 2.7 billion records that were leaked, including Social Security numbers, addresses, and other highly sensitive information.

In 2024, ransomware has continued to be one of the most devastating cyber threats facing businesses globally. As we explore this escalating crisis, it becomes clear that the tactics used by cybercriminals are evolving rapidly, becoming more sophisticated, more frequent, and more costly than ever before.

In a troubling repeat of last year's events, McLaren Health Care in Michigan is once again grappling with a significant IT disruption, raising alarms about another potential cybersecurity incident. This disruption, impacting the hospital's computer and phone systems, is reminiscent of the ransomware attack the organization faced in the fall of 2023.

As a cybersecurity expert, it's clear to me that such widespread outages often signal a cyberattack rather than a simple IT issue.

Cybersecurity involves practices and technologies to protect computers, networks, programs, and data from unauthorized access and attacks. Essentially, we're safeguarding data because cybercriminals target personal information, healthcare data, and financial details for identity theft and fraud.

Recently, Leidos Holdings, a major IT service provider to the Pentagon and other prominent US government agencies, faced a significant hack. This event has raised alarms and highlighted critical vulnerabilities within our cybersecurity infrastructure.

Leidos, based in Virginia, serves high-profile clients, including the US Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, NASA, and various other US and foreign agencies.